No stranger to sleeping on floors, she did mind paying that much for this room and having to.

Eladia followed and giggled, her sweetness apparent even aurally. "Oh, I forgot, these places never have 2 beds in one room."

Kela sighed. "I'll sleep on the floor."

"No, you won't. I won't let you."

She looked at Eladia. "I'm not sleeping with you, Eladia."

Eladia shook her head. "I didn't say you were going to. Besides, you don't like me that much. I can tell. I will sleep on the floor."

Kela was upset by this. "Why? I do like you but.....oh, forget it. I will sleep on the floor. It's not like I haven't for many times in the past." She sat down on the soft, red carpeted floor.

Eladia frowned. "I don't mean to inconvience you."

She shook her head. "You aren't. I mean,..." She blushed, thinking of the attraction she had to Eladia. It was most powerful when she was alone with her. It took all of her to resist it.

Eladia chuckled. "I see," she said. "You shouldn't feel guilty or unnatural. It's niether."

Kela scoffed. "Maybe for you Arci-te. I'm something so rare, all of us can fit in a single passenger ship."

Eladia came to her and sat down beside her. "You shouldn't feel so different. I mean, look at me. For most of my peoples' history, we were reviled and killed en masse. It used to be a shame being Sieki Arci-te. Now, it's strange being adored. It scares me more than the way it used to be."

Kela didn't understand that. It wasn't like any other Arci-te was that different. "I don't know why people would hate you for what you are, why were you so different?"

Eladia scoffed. "Hair and eye colors mainly. You can dye your hair but not your eyes. I never did either. I just moved to Tiat Si where things were different."

Kela sadly shook her head. "Stupid, I think, it all was. But it's not like I've seen many other Arci-te. You are the first one that I've met personally."

Eladia smiled. "I hope you meet others, I'm hardly special."

Kela scoffed. "No, you are. At least to me."

Eladia shook her head and got up. "Don't get yourself into something, Kela dear." She went to the kitchen area to make some lunch.

Kela shivered with a powerful and intense feeling. She hurried to wash her face in cold water.

********************************************************

Kela awoke the next day, stiff and achy from the floor.

Eladia was nowhere to be found.

Kela stretched and got up to go shower.

She was showering in a very large shower room walled wh black tile, enjoying the hot water and cleasning soap when the shower door opened.

Kela gasped and covered herself. "Hey!"

"Sorry, Kela. I game to bring you this." Eladia offered her a small jar of something that was labeled in a language she had never seen before.

She took it. "What is it?"

"Muscle and achy gel, rub it in in the shower and you will feel better."

Kela looked at her.

Eladia wore a one-piece pull over grey dress. Though a rather simple outfit, she made it look great.

"How did you know?"

"I've slept on many floors back on Si-Kera. That is an Ernen invention and product. They have the widest array of healthcare needs and products of anyone."

Kela looked at it again. She knew how advanced the Ernen were. They weren't so bad as everyone said they were. "Um, thank you."

Eladia smiled and closed the door.

Kela had never met anyone so thoughtful, other than her family. She found a neoarcta label underneath the lid and followed its directions, rubbing the cool/hot weird feeling gel onto her sore parts.

The effect was immediate, her soreness fading and vitality enriching. It was an intense feeling.

********************************************************

Later, Eladia was using a Teshin made computer to play a complex looking game in old Arctarian. She sat at the table in the kitchen area engrossed in what looked like geometric shapes and weird looking monsters.

Kela decided not to bother her and pulled out her new hacker, the gift from Cellen. It was discreet and powerful, its screen very nonreflective and only visible to her eyes.

She had never seen anything like it but knew intuitively how to use it.�She called up the resort's master system and was suprised that she couldn't hack into it. It was completely closed off.

So she used it to tap into a hypercomm channel, hideously expensive to use if she was paying for it, and sent for information on Arci-te females.

The reply was immediate. A wealth of data came in, mainly from whatever network this hacker was connected to. It had to be an ACDF one but this amount of observation and detail had to come from a doctor or scientist, or both.

Kela began to study why Eladia had that effect on her.

********************************************************

Hours later, she learned that the Arci-te were naturally matriarchal. The loss of 78% of thier males in the Commonwealth era only intensified that.

They were inclined to female love and got it from a dizzying array of places. But most never had anything to do with Cristalians. There were a precious few but that was a long long time ago.

Kela was not given to female love. She was taught that there was no reason for it. But that was on Si Ela, a place she may never return to.

As she thought about this, her secure comm channel beeped. She took her comm piece to the wallscreen and plugged it in.

Cellen appeared on the screen, looking utterly perfect in a dark blue ACDF uniform. How did she do that? "Kela, there has been a change in plans. The Asikiwa craft is due to ferry the prisoners to Kereta, a place they must not be taken to. They will be eaten there. Gear up and get to your ship. Leave Eladia there."

Kela frowned severely. "Cellen, but...."

"Hurry, Kela. You have to be in place in 3 hours."

Kela hurried to go get ready, pulling off her clothes and putting on the wierd Commonwealth armor web and grey jumper, butoning it up as she came back to the wallscreen. "I just leave?"

Cellen frowned. "I will speak with you personally in Tiat Si when you come back. Otherwise, I will have your instructions on he ship. Hurry. Eladia will understand. She'll meet ya there."

The channel ended. Kela took her comm piece and grabbed up her gear and hacker, stuffing it in a mesh bag.

Eladia stood at the door as she was leaving. "Going already?"

Kela frowned. "Yes, I have a 3 hour window. Why can't you go?"

"It's against the law to endanger an Arci-te life. I'd get in trouble too. Here," she said, handing Kela a beautiful gold neckchain. "Wear your badge on that. For good luck. And this too." She kissed Kela.

Kela was taken aback. It was like licking a block of sugar, almost painfully sweet. She pulled away, smacking her lips and tounge.

Eladia giggled. "Good luck, dear, you'd better go."

Kela couldn't say anything, so shocked. She just nodded and hurried off.

********************************************************

Cellen grinned when Kela told her that Eladia had kissed her. "You'll get used to it. It's like candy that isn't bad for you. Seriously, you listen to Ell, get within 14 kilometers and stay under cloak at all times. It's a simple hack but you have to be fast. You'll have a five minute window to hack in and disable."

Kela engaged the engines and took her ship away from Klidan. "Cellen? What happens if I'm caught? Be truthful, please."

Cellen looked down. "Don't think about it. Your life is over if you fail. How you die will depend on your actions. 30,000 will not be so lucky in thier choices."

Kela scoffed. "That isn't very comforting, Cellen."

"Niether was traipsing all over Kalea. The only thing different here is that instead of you getting shot, you will either be obliterated in space or captured and eaten. I'd rather you came back. We have much to talk about."

Kela fed in the coordinates for not so distant Riefan and jumped into hyperspace. "Cellen, how realistic are my chances here?"

"If you stick to the times, almost perfect. Deviate just a little and I will have a Memory Heart carved for you."

That chilled Kela's very soul.

The Teshin had a somber and now universal way of remebering loved ones and friends lost by carving thier names into a heart shaped gem, typically an amethyst or other dark colored one. It was framed in a heart shaped gold or silver border depending on how he lost one was related to the wearer. It was called a Memory Heart.

Little Kee wore three of them, one gold and two silver. She never talked about who they were for. Iken even wore one for his wife, killed by the Authority. Of course, they were way older than Kela.

"Kela? Look at me. You need to stop very quickly at the orbital around Tidala and pick up Alida."

Kela was shocked. "Alida..my partner?"

Cellen nodded. "She signed on a few hours ago, heard about your scrape on Kalea. She will be invaulable for watching your ass as you are engrossed in your work. Do a quick drop in and out. It's on the way. And keep this channel open, the Asikiwa cannot crack it, I made sure of that."

Kela nodded, relieved to be getting Alida in on this.

********************************************************

An hour later, the tall, thin Averie female sat on the ship's floor, cabling together her exotic equipment cobbled together from 80 different sources in 3 different galaxies.

She could not talk vocally, her ability to was destroyed when she was a chick. She communicated through an empathic ability common to all Averie but honed to communicate wih non-Averie.

She was a great source of hope and love in the Teshin prison, keeping Kela in good spirits.

Presently, she looked at Kela with her big indigo eyes. [How are you feeling? Scared?]

Kela nodded. "Never done anything like this before, you?"

[I have, long ago. I am not scared.]

Kela knew that she was at least 2,000 years old but never asked because Alida was conscious of her age. "I wish I was like you. Did you leave like I did?"

Alida clacked her beak, something she did when something bothered her. [I left because the group disbanded. I am a criminal, you know, you are the same.]

Kela nodded, thinking about the naked, featherless Alida she had first seen 20 years ago. She had given her much needed blanket to the freezing Averie and a life long friendship was born.

Alida now had beautiful grey/white and long feathers she carefully kept groomed, wearing a membrane over them to protect them. It couldn't be seen or felt. Her small hands at the tips of her beautiful wings deftly moved over her bizarre set up.

Kela smiled as Ell took an immediate liking to its bird like bretheren.

Alida was fascinated wih it and all Altiki things. She found a kinship with the flightless bird people, the true wizards of technology in this galaxy.

"You ever hear of this Riefan before?," Kela asked.

[Yes. Asikiwa prison world. Very strange, techonology does not work on the entire surface, rendering it comparably medieval.]

Kela was intrigued by that. She would ask Cellen when she came back on.

She had to attend to some ACDF business but said that she would be back before they entered the Riefan system.

Alida finished setting up and got up. [I am hungry. I have not eaten in 4 days. Do you have anything I can eat?]

Kela grinned. "Sure do. Just rummage around and get what you like."

She bowed her head. [Thank you. You are truly the finest I've met in this galaxy.] She padded away ultra quiet on her large bird feet with its deadly curved talons.

Kela had seen her kill wih those claws and respected them.

Cellen came back on, looking less perfect, her hair messed up and she was flushed. "Sorry, Kela, had to run that little kiritch down who took my compad. I hate this place."

Kela nodded. "Tell me about Riefan, the no technology thing?"

"Technology barrier, very dangerous. Effects weapons and electronics. Biotech is unaffected. Your ship wold be fine but not any of your equipment."

Kela remembered the primitive weapons in the old man's store on Si-Kera. She might go back and get some if ever trying her luck on Riefan. "I see."

"Acivate your shell and cloak web now. You're getting close."

Kela did. The ship was now invisible to eyes and Asikiwa sensors. "Okay."

Cellen nodded. "I will have to go, kid. An open channel is too dangerous. Call me the second you wihdraw." She took a drink of water. Was she sweating? "You will go in in the outer system, fly for 45 minutes, get within 14km, open your hacker and lock onto the ship's master system. Do whatever you think will disable the craft, there are a 1000 ways to do it. Once it is, get your butt out of there. Jump right to the outer system and watch the show. You call me the second you are in the outer system, understand?"

Kela nodded, not liking those time restraints. "I'm within 3 minutes of the out jump time."

Cellen nodded. "Stay calm and do well, I promise you, you will be rewarded for this."

"Before I go, can I ask a personal question?"

Cellen looked at her wih suprise. "What?"

"What were you really doing?"

Cellen blushed a deep red color. "I'll tell ya when we meet in person again. Good luck, kid, I believe in you." The channel ended.

Kela frowned as she brought the ship 114 AU out from Riefan. It would take � of an hour to get there. She used this time to share a meal with Alida.

� 7 March 2004 Gregory Thompson